Jambo!

It has been a couple weeks since I've made a post on here, so let me catch you up on what has been going on.

Two weeks ago things wrapped up at ICS Addis as their school year came to an end. On the last day of school, the third graders performed three different blues songs they wrote in the morning and the whole school sang along with the debut of the new school song in the afternoon. I am definitely honored to have been a part of the school song writing process. It was great seeing it performed by students and teachers before I left, and I hope the song lives on for a while. 

Check out this original song by one of the 9th grade choir girls at ICS. It is one of my favorites. I wish I had time to upload more right now, because I have quite a few more favorites, but this is a nice sample of one of the many awesome songs that were created during my four week stay. 

After our short day at school, I got to have a super delicious burger at the same burger joint the teachers took me to at the beginning of my stay in Ethiopia. After burgers, fries, and ice cream, we continued on to multiple celebratory beers at the local, topped off by a Korean feast for the last night. 

Last week, after leaving Ethiopia for Tanzania, I took a fairly last minute trip up to Kilimajaro. It was a great time overall, but super challenging on the last day. The altitude from about 15,000 ft. to 19,000 ft. was pretty intense for me. Nausea, light headedness, and a pulsing headache came and went all the time. I will say though, everything felt pretty good when after hiking for 6 hours under a blanket of stars and a bright full moon, the sky began to glow a fiery red as the African sun began to ascend on the horizon. I was freezing and sick, but it is hard to ignore the beauty of something like that. We made it to the summit around 8:00 am and got back to base camp about noon. A lot of struggling uphill, but well worth it.

Last night was my first here at St. Jude's in Arusha, Tanzania. I have barely been here 24 hours and things are already happening. Yesterday I went around the town, saw the market, had lunch, etc. Very cool getting to see the town right away, but last night was something else. I was invited to come along with a group of visiting teachers to a local teacher's wedding reception. It was a night filled with a lot of sitting and watching with confused looks as the MC spoke in Swahili, but there was also some great East and West African music, a little dancing, cake, and (more importantly) a fat goat to cut up and share. Cool stuff. I wish I had some pictures, but no luck this time. 

I figure I will be officially half way done with my travels after this week is over. This is stop number 5 out of 9 at this point, and my goal is to be back in the US by November. I get to meet a bunch more students tomorrow, which I am excited about. I am spending one week at the primary school here, then three weeks at the secondary school. Should be another different experience all together. More info about this school next week. All for now. Take care my friends.

-T

Hello all.

The rainy season is just beginning in Addis Ababa. Most days are a mix of bright sun and rain. If it rains in the morning, it is usually sunny in the evening, and vice versa. It is still quite beautiful here though, not too hot, not too cold. Because the weather is usually nice, I take the 20 minute walk to and from school. I am living in an apartment with a roommate who is also a teacher at the school.

There is a great group of teachers I have been hanging out after school and on the weekend. My roommate and her friends mostly. Most days after school a group goes to “the local” or someone’s house to chill. It has been nice to have more of a social life here after feeling quite isolated in India and Oman from time to time. On Friday night we ended up at an expat house party. From what I gathered, the crowd was made up of N.G.O. interns, volunteers, teachers, hip young professionals, and a group of locals. The drinks were flowing plentifully and the 90s tunes were bumping. Good times.

There are less than two weeks left of school at ICS and I will be here up through the last day. Things are wrapping up. The teachers and students are feeling it. It is cool for me to come in at the end of the year to these music classes and add something a little bit different. The middle and high school choirs have been finishing up and recording their songs this week which has been awesome so far. The third graders have finished writing their blues songs and we will be rehearsing for their performance on the last day of school. 

The students here: wow. They are constantly blowing me away with their creativity and curiosity- especially the elementary schoolers. You can definitely tell that asking excellent questions is something that is pushed early on here. International school students have their own set of issues, usually due to moving around so much, but generally speaking these students seem to have things together. ICS is a great place to be! 

Audio and video of the songs from Addis coming soon.

Until next time,

-T